The Dodgers continue to inch closer to their first NL West crown since 2009 and the quest continues Tuesday in Arizona. The Dodgers and Diamondbacks each trot an ace to the hill as Zack Greinke and Patrick Corbin duel in the desert. Corbin opens up as the ever-so-slight -115 favorite at Chase Field against a Dodger team that is all but locked into the playoffs.
Free Pick
Between Yasiel Puig, Paul Goldschmidt and Adrian Gonzalez there are plenty of bats to talk about in this one but the pitching matchup steals
the headline here. For the home team, Patrick Corbin looks to finish strong in his first career All-Star season. The crafty lefty didn’t fade in the second half like some felt may happen. Instead, Corbin continued to deal for a very mediocre Arizona squad and will look for win number 15 on Tuesday evening. The Dodgers aren’t exactly anything new at this point for Corbin. He has thrown over 17 innings against L.A. and, despite giving up 19 hits, has only conceded five earned runs. Corbin loves pitching at Chase Field and the Arizona faithful appreciates what the youngster means to the organization. The Dodgers are more concerned with getting healthy before a playoff run than scoring runs at this point, which means no Hanley Ramirez or Carl Crawford again. The Ramirez omission hurts especially against the left-hander, as L.A. struggles without its primary source of power from the right side against southpaws. Look for Corbin to come out and do this thing against a thin Dodger lineup.
The problem for Arizona is that its lineup still has to score against Zack Greinke – something that hasn’t been particularly easy for any club this year. Somehow, Greinke has managed to slip under the radar in Los Angeles (he can thank Clayton Kershaw for that). Either way, the former Cy Young winner is a sparkling 14-3 with a 1.15 WHIP this season even after suffering the broken bone at the very start to the season after Carlos Quentin charged him after being plunked. You could say Greinke has Arizona’s number this season – allowing six base runners and just two runs in 14 innings of work. Don’t expect anything radically different Tuesday. Arizona’s offense is pretty stagnant unless Paul Goldschmidt does it all. Goldy is just 1 for 7 career vs. Greinke and Zack is getting in postseason shape in these final two weeks.
In case you haven’t caught on to as much, I think this game goes low. It was going to come down to juice as to whether or not I played it at 7.5 but then the oddsmakers made the decision easy and opened an 8.0. A little puzzling; and because of that, a little concerning. That said, I can’t pass up that kind of (apparent) value here.
Free Pick: Los Angeles/Arizona Under 8.0 (-115)
2013 MLB: 25-15-3 +10.98
arizona diamondbacks • la dodgers • patrick corbin • zack greinke